Wilfried Nancy

Wilfried Nancy: I’m in Columbus, because my family is here and I have two kids. My kids go to school in Columbus and also I like Columbus, with my house and everything, so that’s why we are still here.

People are exceptional with me, outstanding. As soon as I put my feet back in Columbus, they hug me, they encourage me, they were really grateful.

And obviously this is the story that we made together. So I feel at peace here. That’s why I’m happy to be here and we see where the future will move me and my family.

It was funny, when I was doing the media when I was in at Celtic, they were talking to me like I did nothing, but again, this is the challenge that I had and this is something that I really embraced.

We went also to the final, the CONCACAF Champions Cup final, we played against a big team in Mexico (Pachuca). When we played in Mexico (at the Estadio Hidalgo), this is so difficult because there is the altitude and the level is really, really good too.

We played in front of 30,000 people and the passion in Mexico is similar as in Europe. So I’ve been there. I knew what I wanted to do and I knew what I did.

And I’m really pleased with what I did.

Listen, it’s been interesting. I cannot complain about my life as a coach, but I can tell you that now I have a normal life, because I do simple things, normal things, like taking care of my family, spending time with my family.

I have a new job also – I am an Uber driver for my kids, with all their activities and school. And I try  to help my wife and also take care of myself, trying to do certain things that I didn’t have the time to do when I was working.

So honestly, it’s a blessing, because since 2010 I didn’t stop. And I think it’s good for me also to step back a bit and to recharge everything and to go for the next project.

This is the first thing I told my family and my wife when I became a coach – that it’s beautiful to be a coach, but you have to understand that we don’t know where we’re going to live, we’re going to travel.

And sometimes I’m going to be good, sometimes going to be bad, and I might be fired or not, I don’t know. So we were ready for that. We knew that something like this could happen. This is part of my job, so I have no issue with that.

Obviously for my ego, it could be difficult, but at the same time, everything happened for a reason. I knew I had a lot of time in front of me, so apart from helping my family and doing certain things at home, I cut everything.

I just wanted to shut down everything and spend time to read, to discover new things. And I would say after two months I decided to go back to football, because I missed that.

And also I want to take advantage of my situation, so that’s why I try to discover new things, to read a lot, to watch a lot, try to learn more. 

When we win or when we lose, we learn. And for me, this is the way I am as a person. When I won the title with Columbus, my mind was the same – to try to get better for the future. And obviously what happened in Celtic didn’t finish the way I wanted.

So this is a new journey. But I am at peace with myself regarding what happened. And that’s why I can take it in a good way.

Honestly, it was a beautiful experience, because I did my job with passion and that’s why I love my job.

The club and the fans and the city, it’s been amazing for that. Obviously things could have been better. But again, I think life is about the moment. And I think that the moment when I went there, with reflection, maybe was not the good moment.

The Celtic brand is something that I, like a lot. That’s why I wanted to go over there, despite the fact that I had many opportunities with a lot of different clubs. But I decided to go there because of the history of the club and so on.

But before getting there, I knew it could be difficult regarding the schedule, how many games they played before me, how many games that we have to play when I’m going to get there, the injured players.

So that’s why I put everything into perspective. After that, the pressure is the pressure and they changed their mind. But again I spent a really, really good time over there. Obviously I didn’t have enough time, but I have no bad words regarding what happened over there. It’s part of my journey.

I am a big believer on that and that’s why sometimes people can think that I am a philosophical person. And the fact that I won, I know what I’m talking about regarding this, because when you don’t win something major, you talk, but you don’t really know.

Process, it’s a consequence of the outcome. I cannot control the outcome. Again, all the process, for me this is most important, because the outcome will come regarding how we’re going to act, how you’re going to behave, to maximise your chance to win games.

But even though you do that, you can have good behaviour, good way of doing things, but you can hit the post five times and you don’t win. So what does it mean? Means that you did a bad game? 

But again, people are going to say that if you don’t win, you fail. But I don’t see it like this, because there is only one winner and after that what does it mean for the other people? Different clubs have different objective.

It’s funny to listen to people talk about, ‘I want to win, I want to win, I want to win.’

But everybody wants to win! So for me, this is useless to talk all the time about this. Day to day, how we can we be vulnerable, how can we be open minded? How can we get out of your comfort zone?

If you are able to do it, you maximise your chance to win and you maximise your chance to have a good performance. But sometimes people don’t want to talk about this, because there is a bit of fragility behind that.

And behind that we have to understand people. There is a background behind each individual. So that’s why I like to ask the same question to my players once or twice per year – ‘what is the definition of success for you?’ And sometimes you can be surprised that this is not about titles.

It could be, ‘I need money to feed my family.’ ‘I need to have also a good moment with people around me.’ And we also see there is title. But you have to understand the context, the environment and so on.

That’s why, when people talk about, ‘I want to win,’ tell me more, tell me more. I had a player, Cucho Hernandez, he plays for Real Betis now. One day he was upset and he told me, ‘Coach, when I don’t win, I want to die.’

So I said, ‘I’m going to show you certain things that you can stay alive if you do it, but if you don’t do it, you’re going to die.’ We can control certain things and what we control is how we do things, our performance and also the mindset.

Because sometimes people want to have the perfection. You know, perfection doesn’t exist for me. I like excellence, standards. And because of the standards and the excellence, you’re going to be able to reach certain things.

So again, this is about terminology, but for me there are a lot of nuances regarding this.

Yeah, but again, this is why the narrative could be different. Everybody likes to create their own story. If I don’t win, I gotta be fired. Understand me well, it was the same in Columbus.

When I compete every day to do something, I call it the joy of competing. So yes, Celtic, Rangers or Manchester City – there are different categories of club – no problem with that, I am on the same page.

But again, this is not the topic to talk about this every day. Stop talking; show. This is my point. It’s easy to say I want to win, but I can tell you many, many examples of people who said they want to win but didn’t want to do certain things.

This is the nuance. Nobody likes to lose. Because when you lose, there is a lot of emotion that comes. You can talk bad to yourself, you can put yourself down, you can be less confident and so on. No problem with that. But you can balance with the way that you’re gonna be as a person.

It’s not because I’m gonna say I want to win every day that I’m gonna win. Sorry for my language, but this is bullshit. This is about what do you do to do it? I am extremely, extremely, extremely demanding with that – with the attitude, with the behaviour.

There are many players that say they want to win, but when they see difficulties on the pitch, they don’t show, they don’t ask for the ball, they don’t want to make a mistake. Because if I make a mistake, it’s going to be on me.

But we don’t do an individual sport, we do a professional sport. And for me, I see a good team. When you are in the arena, show me that you’re going to win. It’s easy to talk to the media, easy to practise well and so on.

But now with the pressure, show. And sometimes they don’t show. As a coach, I have to face the pressure and sometimes it’s not easy, but I have to face it. And I’m not saying that I am the king of that.

But again, I try to get better and better and better. I don’t like people when they say something, but they don’t try to do everything to achieve it. 

Obviously with what happened, it’s easy to say that, but not at all.

The way I see football is about connection. I remember when I was playing with my friends outside, I didn’t know a few players.

So after two or three minutes, I was able to see, ‘This guy likes to do that, so maybe I’m going to give him the ball in this way,’ or, ‘Maybe he’s not so good, this is not his strength to defend, so maybe I’m going to help him a little bit more.’

That’s why connection, for me, is more important than everything.

I cannot dissociate the player and the human being. That’s why the style of play that I have is about being audacious, being brave, with a lot of nuances, but also to express yourself.

And the fine margin that I try to get with my players is, yes, I can give you a structure regarding how we want to play, but within the structure I want to see your creativity.

I try to create this kind of structure for my players to express themselves. I do both (positionism and relationism). Because, when we watch the game of Guardiola now, we evolved. In the past, he wanted to have all the time players high and wide. Now they can come inside and there is more rotation.

Now, when I a watch game in Brazil or in Argentina, there is less structure in terms of position. It’s more about play with more individual players and how they’re going to connect together.

I call it the minestrone soup. I do both. In the past I was a positional play coach, but within that I had relation between players. Because for me, the most important is the connection between four players.

I am a big believer of that. Not three players, it’s four players. Why four players? Because four players, for me is a kind of diamond. And why I like the diamond is because the diamond gave me the possibility to look forward as soon as possible.

If the four players know how to run together, they’re going to be able to move and rotate at any moment and be able to defend with a good structure at the same time.

But (it’s important) for them to understand that we need a bit of positional play, just for them to see the structure. Because creativity, for me, you need a structure for them to understand what they have to do and when they have to do it and how they have to do it. 

After that, once they understand that, I want you to move together, because our reference is the ball, and after that is going to be your team-mate and the space and the time that you are going to get.

But within that there are many concepts. That’s why I like to talk about time and not space. How you can create time for yourself or how you can create time for your team-mate to be able to have a good execution.

I like to define time and not space. If I have the ball and I try to attack you, maybe you will come towards me. That means that I’m going to create time for my team-mate. So I’m going to give the ball to my team-mate and now he’s going to have the time to see and to play and to execute well.

Now if I don’t have the time with the ball, I’m going to give the ball away.

That’s why, for me, it’s all about time and how you can create this time or not. Do I give the ball right away because I have the pressure? Or do I keep the ball and I, go forward, because I can attack the first line of pressure or the second line of pressure?

So when my players are able to understand this, I don’t have to tell them to play with one or two and 10 touches. It’s going to depend on the opposition. So combinations can be in. The give and go can be in. Drive can be in. Stop the ball can be in. 

There is a purpose behind that. This is the kind of concept that I like. And I go back to Jamie, what he said in the beginning, in terms of relationism, I don’t call it like this, but I did that since the beginning.

When I was a professional player, I was not fast. So I needed my team-mates to help me to attack the box. That’s why for me connection, relation, talk to me a lot, because of my background.

That’s why for me, how we can manipulate the opposition is really important. I’m going to create this kind of structure for my players, to help them to express themselves and to break down a low block or mid block or high block.

Like I said in the beginning, we are all different and positional play gives us safety: ‘I am in my position. I know that I’m gonna wait for the ball and if they don’t give me the ball, it’s going to be the other player’s fault.’

I am exaggerating a bit. You know, sometimes people take this for granted.

I had discussions with many players at certain moments when I was in Celtic. They wanted to know, ‘Let’s say my number six has the ball. I want to know if we play with the 4-3-3 with three guys in the middle. I want to know that my number eight on the right side should be there. I want to see that the eight on the left side should be here. And I want to see my number 10 in this position.’

And I said, ‘Yeah, okay, this gives you safety. But I don’t mind about the name. I mind about how you’re going to connect with the players around you.’ And this sometimes could be difficult with people who don’t want to get out of their comfort zone.

They’re struggling a bit with that, because, ‘No coach. I want to play the one touch, two touch football.’ No, sometimes you have to take 10 touches. ‘Yeah, but I’m not confident with that.’

So this is my job – to show them video picture of themselves from the pitch. Discuss, create exercise and create environment for them to express and to try things and to show them that it works.

Because again, there’s the little voice behind you saying, ‘Hey, if I try this, if I fail, it’s going to be on you. People are going to say that you made a mistake.’

That’s why it’s going beyond winning – how you can understand what you have to do by connecting with people.

And sometimes it could be easy for me. I like to say that to my players – ‘Guys, you know what? Today is going to be one touch or two touch. And if you are not able to play one touch or two touch, this is not good.’

But no, I’m sorry, this is not football. Because nowadays teams are more compact. Sometimes the number six or the centre backs are gonna have to drive the ball and have 10 touches. Sometimes you’re gonna have to pause to stop the ball. And this, this is a concept that has been many, many years, decades.

In Brazil, in South America, they do it a lot – to pause, to stop the ball. But why do you stop the ball? It’s a really, really good tool, because when you pause, you freeze the opposition. And when you freeze the opposition, you give time to your team-mate to move. So this is another concept that sometimes is not so common to do it.

When you propose this for a few players, they’re gonna say, ‘Oh, no, no, no, I don’t do that. I cannot do that. I am a centre back. I have to release the ball quicker.’

I believe this is easier for the opposition to defend side to side. The most difficult thing is to disrupt lines. And how you can disrupt lines is to engage the first line.

And to engage the first line, you have to attack the first line. And sometimes, as a centre back, you have to go in the middle, because you have to make a diagonal run. You have to get out of your position.

I’ve been with players that have told me, ‘No, I don’t do that.’ But after two weeks, three weeks, they understood why we do what we do. And, sorry for my language, but they fucking enjoy it.

Because it’s not about playing safe, it’s playing football. This is so important. Profile of player, obviously, is really important.

But again, I think that sometimes players don’t want to do things, they put themselves down more than they can. So I tried to convince them, ‘Guys, don’t think like this, you can do it.’

And as soon as you’re going to understand the cues, you’re going to be able to do it in a better way.

I don’t ask players to play without fear. Fear is here. We cannot change that. It’s a part of emotion. To be fearful of something is totally normal, because again our ancestors were hunting to survive and they were hiding to survive.

So this is part of us as a human being – when you do something that really counts for you, you have a bit of a fear. It’s totally normal. 

I’m talking about a way of doing things. Because sometimes they’ve been brainwashing to do certain things, but there is other way to do it. Especially because football changed. Now this is man to man everywhere, so positional play could be difficult.

So if you play positional and you face a team with man to man, good luck. You have to do extra things. And when I was a player – I was a professional player also – I had fear also regarding certain things.

I can share with you that sometimes I was afraid. I had a lot of pressure for my coaches and so on. So I was simulating injury to not playing. So I know what I’m talking about. So me what I try to convince my players is emotions are here. You cannot play without emotion, it’s totally normal. Human being is emotion. 

But how you can be excited by doing certain things. And again what I’ve learned when I was in Scotland – I travelled a lot, I saw so many games, I have many friends who played high level. They told me that the pressure is difficult to cope with. So I know pressure, no problem with that. But at the same time the environment is so critical, is so important.

So it showed that I wanted to help my players. When I was working with Celtic and I had an idea – I wanted to shut down Sky News. I did not want (it). And this is a discussion I had with a few people over there within the club.

When you come in the facility, you have the TV open and you have Sky News on. And, unconsciously, you get information, you get pressure. 

When the results are bad and you come in, it should be a safe environment. And you have (Sky) News, talking about these players were not good, these coaches were not good, and I think that you should have done this and you should have done that.

So that’s why this job is fucking difficult. Not as a coach. I’m talking about the player. That’s why, for me, the safe environment is really important. 

And when I talk about safe environment, it’s about joy of competing.

This is not saying, ‘Yes, man.’ No, I’m gonna practise kind honesty with you. I’m gonna support you, but I’m gonna challenge you. 

And for me, this is something that is really important. Guardiola said it recently, (when) he was telling people why he loves City – because of the people within the club, the way they treat people.

They know they have a lot of pressure, but at the same time they try to balance the pressure with something different. When you do something that counts for you, you have pressure. But at the same time, you have to be good, to challenge your players and help them to achieve and to face adversity.

Sometimes facing adversity is so difficult; too difficult for a few people.

They hire me for that, to change that. That’s why I went there. 

Because, again, I’m not a conservative coach. I’m not here to criticise anybody. Every coach is different and , respect that. You can win by being conservative. Mourinho, apparently, was a defensive coach, but he won titles. This is one of the most titled coaches in the world.

Guardiola, apparently, is an offensive coach, and he won titles too. So understand me well, the debate is not on that.

We had a plan and everything was clear – because I do also my due diligence. After that pressure we still had everything in our hands to change things and adjust things regarding the standings, regarding everything.

My job, my idea, was not to change everything. No, it’s impossible. I’m not stupid to come and to change everything. No, not at all. The idea was to step by step bring something new or something different.

After that, pressure. That’s why pressure is so huge, that’s why I went there. 

Again, the support that I had, with the Chairman and everything, everybody over there, was huge. No problem with that. 

After that there is results and we know that in our job, if we don’t add results, it’s difficult. I knew that this is part of my job. That’s why, for me, everything was clear, everything was set up.

We were on the same page. But after that, the result and the pressure and the perspective changed. But again, I have no problem with that. This is football.

Football sometimes is irrational, I would say so. So obviously it’s a no brainer that I didn’t have enough time. We know that. But again now the idea is to learn from that, to move forward and to embrace my new journey that I’m going to get because I am more confident than anything.

But I am also humble knowing that in our job you have to be confident, because as a leader if you are not confident, don’t do this job. But at the same time, I have to be also humble that this is part of my journey and I am at peace with that.

We discussed in the past together the index of performance, KPI. Yes. And this is something that why I am at peace with myself regarding every club that I went, Montreal, Columbus and Celtic.

I am really demanding for myself and my staff. It’s a job with a lot of pressure and I love it. I embrace that because I believe that in life if you don’t have challenges, it’s boring.

So I love it, no problem with that. But at the same time you have to be pragmatic.

The KPI for me gives me the answer regarding where we are, where we want to go and what did we do. And I like to see the trend and the coherence.

So that’s why for me, my last club helped me with the KPI to avoid to be crazy and to be in total panic regarding everything, because we had good performance. But after that we were not consistent. 

We could have won so many games. We know that. And I’m not a fan of should have, could have and so on. But regarding the KPI that we had, we had the possibility to have fact regarding what we wanted to do and the way we wanted to do.

And when we won the title in MLS, it’s crazy, because the second year we didn’t win the title, we finished second but we had better data than the first year and we didn’t win.

So that’s why this kind of KPI for me helps me to understand what we need to improve what we did well, but also help me also to discuss with ownership, to discuss with the staff, to discuss with the players, to be factual regarding certain things.

Knowing that I am a big believer on eyes, new eyes, fresh eyes. Data is an addition of context, but at the same time we can have tools to bring more tranquillity, you know, regarding the fire that we can have, you know, in our job.

Russ, I respect him as a person, but also as a coach. What he did with Southampton has been amazing, especially when he was in the Premier League, because I remember games that he played in a certain way. He has a way to see football that I like, so we have also proximity regarding that.

After that it’s a weird and funny story together, because we were coach together with Glasgow (Rangers) and Celtic and we didn’t succeed over there. But again, that doesn’t mean we are good or bad, it means this is part of our journey.

I lived in Martinique, in the West Indies. Guadeloupe, La Réunion, Djibouti. Because my dad was travelling a lot (in the French Navy), we had to stay with the French community — the name was La Marine.

So that’s why we travel a lot like this.

[Did you feel like an outsider?] Yes, yes, totally. I agree with that. And this is something that I try also to do with my kids.

And it was really interesting for me to see how they behaved when we came here, because in Columbus, it was the first time, Montreal to Columbus, and they struggled in the beginning, but step by step they adjusted. And nowadays they are able to speak English fluently, they discover new culture and so on.

The fact that I travelled a lot helped me to understand people and different cultures and to have more empathy with people.

This is difficult to teach; you have to feel it, you have to live it. That’s why, for me, the job that I do now, as a leader, the fact that I travelled a lot helped me to manage the people I work with.

So that’s why, for me, there is a key word: vulnerability. I am confident enough that I don’t mind about the hierarchy. I mind about what kind of environment I’m going to put with the people that I work with.

To do that, you have also to understand that people will think in a different way than you. You have to understand that people will act in different ways, but you cannot be offended by that.

The fact  I travelled a lot helped me to size up this kind of situation and also to lead with their mindset. For me, this is so important, because I believe we all have uniqueness, we all have expertise and we should be able to show our expertise.

That’s why it’s been really, really good for me to travel and hopefully in my career I do the same. And I’m sorry, but I’m going back to football, this is a link with my style of play.

(He was criticised for having a very rigid style of play at Celtic, instead of being flexible and pragmatic).

That’s why people didn’t do their homework. All the teams that I had, yes, we defended with a back three. But sometimes it was a back four and sometimes it was a back five. And when we attack, we attack with sometimes a back two, a back three, a back four, a back one.

So it was never the same. But I didn’t have a lot of time and I didn’t want to change certain things. So that’s why I stayed with something simple for the moment. But my football is not about rigidity, not at all.

People who say that don’t know me or they didn’t do their due diligence, because I am a big believer in adjustment – but not for the sake of adjusting. When I prepare a game, I watch the opposition.

Really important for me, I am a bit of old school. There is also my staff doing it, but I like also to watch minimum three games. If we play away, it’s going to be three games away and one game at home, because I need to see certain things.

We’ve got to focus on us, but after that I’m going to adjust certain things.

So that’s why people who faced me – again, with a lot of humility, I mean coaches, my peers – told the media that is difficult to play against my teams, because they don’t know how we’re going to attack. 

But again, I needed to be pragmatic with my last club. I like to attack in a different way because everything changes in a certain way. For me, this is the future of football. And again, with a lot of humility, I did it in Columbus.

(In December 2025, two seemingly small things quickly became huge talking points at Celtic. On 16 December, after three straight defeats, Nancy’s account changed its profile picture to a motivational Venn diagram. There were two overlapping circles labelled “things that matter” and “things you can control”. An arrow then pointed to the overlap with the text “what you should focus on”. The second was using a tactics board on the sideline during his very first game in charge, a 2-1 home loss to Hearts on 7 December).

First of all, perspective is everything. I don’t mind what people are going to say, because they see one side of me and don’t know me as a person. But again, the job that we do, everybody can talk.

We study to become a coach, but there are people who like to talk, but they didn’t study to become a coach. That’s why I use Twitter to do that. Because nowadays this is a massive tool to learn. Apparently, when I use my tactical board, I’ve been destroyed for that.

But again, the tactical board, I will use it again, because it’s a tool, because I am visual. And sometimes when there is emotion, when there is pressure, depending on the person I talk with, it’s easier to show him, ‘We’re gonna attack like this.’

And sometimes, because there is a lack of translation, because there is me, I am a French guy, but in France, I will use it also. So with three words and the tactical board, I can show him.

‘You’re gonna attack here, you’re gonna defend there.’ That’s it. But now, if people want to do things about this, no problem.

And the second thing that you told me is (about the Venn diagram), honestly, I didn’t do it on purpose.

And to be honest with you, my wife was not happy with me, because she told me, ‘What did you do?’ I said, ‘I did nothing.’ ‘But you’re trending now because you put something on Twitter.’ I said, ‘I didn’t do anything!’

I just did the image that I had, because it was the image when I was in the dressing room of Columbus, and I just put the image that I have when people call me on WhatsApp.

I think that you saw it. This is the image that I have, that I like. Simple as that. And this is the image that I had before. 

I am a big believer on that, because sometimes we want to control certain things that are impossible to control. So focus on what matters and you’re going to feel better, you’re going to be more fresh, you’re going to have better decision-making, you’re going to be faster in decision making, and you’re going to be at peace with yourself.

This is why I like this picture, because it represents me. 

And it was a big drama. But again, I don’t like to waste time on that. I move forward and that’s it. But again, I didn’t want to do that. But this is part of the job that I have.

And this is part also of the way we have to live with these certain things like that. But again, I move forward.

The only thing that I knew was that I wanted to become a coach. I stopped football at around 28-years-old and I knew I would become a coach, but I didn’t know when and where. So it’s the same now.

For the moment it’s a transition for me and I’m waiting for a project that could be good for me. I had, with a lot of humility, the possibility already to come back, but I didn’t feel that it was a good moment for me to do it.

So now, I am open. I am open to a project and also to discover something new, and also to challenge myself and my staff and also to learn. 

For the moment, I’m here in Columbus, but I’m eager to go back to do my job. But at the same time, I don’t want to rush. But I cannot complain, to be honest with you. I cannot complain regarding the life that I have.

It’s true that my job is not a job, it’s a passion. I am open to any kind of project regarding any kind of countries, and to trust myself and to enjoy this moment. So we’ll see.